The Seoul Spring ( Korean:서울의 봄) was a period of democratization in South Korea from 26 October 1979 to 17 May 1980. This expression was derived from the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Sec ...

of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The assassination of president

Park Chung-Hee Park Chung-hee (, ; 14 November 1917 – 26 October 1979) was a South Korean politician and army general who served as the dictator of South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979; ruling as an unelected military strongman from 1961 ...

on 26 October 1979 by Kim Jae Kyu, terminating his dictatorship, was expected to democratize South Korea soon by people who revived democratization movements. The National Conference for Unification tried to nominate Choi Kyu Hah to succeed Park Chung-Hee as president through indirect election. Then some anti-government figures held a fake wedding ceremony - in order to gather people, getting around the law prohibiting any political meeting - to denounce the martial law army and the National Conference for Unification after which the martial law army arrested 140 participants, including 14 persons delivered to the defence security command in Yongsan-gu and tortured. After the large-scale demonstration in Seoul Station, general Chun Doo Hwan, holding de facto real power at that time, declared the emergency martial to escalate and the army assaulted Ewha Womans University to arrest students representatives who had gathered there. The Seoul Spring effectively came to a close with the Gwangju Massacre on 18 May 1980, which spurred future social movements toward democratization in the country.

References

Protests in South Korea South Korean democracy movements 1970s in Seoul 1979 in South Korea 1980 in South Korea Choi Kyu-hah Chun Doo-hwan Roh Tae-woo Gwangju Uprising 1980s in Seoul {{SouthKorea-stub

See also

References